Erika Pao and Luisa Santiaga are two girls who live in Cartagena and wished to show Cartagena from the perspective of those who live there, seeking to bring out the daily events and commonplace to light:

Tell through video all the everyday events and anonymous stories that surround us; all the cultural and social wealth that we are immersed in but many ignore about our city.

Part of the successful national Colombian campaign to increase tourism has been related to their slogan: Colombia is Passion. But the efforts are not only seen outside the country, inside, it has also been employed to strengthen the national pride. Such is the case with their promotional event in Cartagena: in one of the plazas of the walled city, they placed sculptures and images that reflect the campaign. The song used to accompany the video is a joint effort between many Colombian artists for the campaign and is called Colombia es Pasión:

January 2nd is the Candelaria Virgin procession, where Catholics climb up to the convent at the top of Popa hill and then bring down the Virgin on their shoulders to the chapel at the bottom of the hill:

In Cartagena, near the Carriage Plaza there is a covered passageway that used to be where slaves were sold. At the end of the XIX century, it started selling much more palatable wares: candy. The Candy Portal sells many of the traditional sweets produced in the region: Tamarind, coconut and sugar cane concoctions.

There are also other commonplace images, in this next video, barefoot children play soccer on the dusty streets under the midday sun in the “Cheap Rice” neighborhood.

These next videos show a bit about the food in Cartagena. First, a mysterious drink made of rice, milk and flavorings, with nutmeg, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and ice, it is described by the vendor on his sign as : Exquisite, nourishing and refreshing:

Another traditional food staple in Cartagena is the “patacón pisao”, a squashed double fried plantain that is eaten at every meal. Luisa Santiaga takes us through the step by step process of peeling, cutting, frying, squashing, dunking, and frying plantains:

This last video takes us out of the walled city and into the streets where locals live, shop and move around:

If you want to see more of Cartagena through the eyes of these two women, you can visit and subscribe to the Cartagena 365 page or follow @luisasantiaga and @erikapao on twitter where they twit about their latest uploaded videos.

In future posts, we will bring you videos from other Colombian vloggers participating in the 365 project. Do you know of any videoblogger we should write about on Global Voices? Please write to us and let us know!

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